Structure

“Shopping for One” by Anne Cassidy presents a single ordinary episode in the life of the main character: a shopping experience a single woman has. The story is structured around the woman’s perception of what happens around her and on her feelings of inadequacy because she is single and shopping for one.

Generally, we expect short stories to follow a plot line comprised of an exposition, a rising action, a climax, a falling action and a resolution. However, Anne Cassidy’s short story is devoid of plot. Nothing really happens in the short story, the narrative just captures a glimpse of the character’s life.

Title

The title of the short story is very suggestive, indicating that the narrative is going to be about a shopping episode in the life of a person who is single. However,...